‘It’s not a lost season by no means’
Growlers didn’t win the Kelly Cup, but they certainly succeeded this season
The Newfoundland Growlers may not be bringing the Kelly Cup home, but they can hold their heads high for battling until the end.
The team was eliminated from the ECHL Kelly Cup playoffs by the Florida Everblades in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals Tuesday, May 30 at the Mary Brown’s Centre in St. John’s.
The heartbreaking 3-2 loss came in double overtime to end the team's third straight conference finals appearance and their quest for a second Kelly Cup championship.
It wasn’t the finish anyone around the team wanted, especially after the run Newfoundland had through the regular season and the first two rounds of the playoffs.
“You're disappointed, everybody is,” said Growlers head coach Eric Wellwood afterward.
“It’s more not for myself, but for the boys there. We had a goal of trying to win this year, and that is something very difficult to do.
“It’s not a lost season by no means. Getting to the conference finals and having the success that we had (in the) regular season, that's all fine and dandy, but it doesn't mean it doesn't sting.”
NOT A LOST SEASON
Wellwood has a point when he says this wasn’t a lost season. In a sports world that continues to trumpet the ‘championship-or-bust' mentality as a unit of measure when it comes to team success, sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees, so to speak.
The Growlers won a franchise record 48 games, won the ECHL North Division and finished as the top team in the Eastern Conference.
They made another long playoff run and were the last Canadian professional hockey team standing in the postseason.
If that wasn’t enough, star forward Zach O’brien set a club record with 87 points. Others like Todd Skirving, Pavel Gogolev, Isaac Johnson and Orrin Centazzo had their best seasons ever as professionals.
The Growlers started and continue to have several players in their lineup playing their first professional seasons. They spent most of the season with a pair of rookie goaltenders and leaned heavily on both Dryden Mckay and Luke Cavallin in the playoffs.
Defenceman Michael Joyaux was named to the ECHL’S all-rookie team, and others showed marked improvement as the year progressed and were asked to play big minutes in playoff crunch time.
“I've been very lucky my two years here of having quality men in that in that locker room,” said Wellwood.
NOT IN THE CARDS
Still, the Growlers ran into a formidable Florida team in the conference finals for the third straight year.
Florida’s core, including goaltender Cam Johnson, won last year and were wellversed in what's needed to win.
Sometimes, young teams like the Growlers need to lose before they can win.
Wellwood credited his players for the effort they put in during the series.
They didn’t fold the tent and put up a fight with their season on the line – it just wasn’t in the cards for them this season.
“We gave it everything we had just fell a little bit short,” said Wellwood.